The Wake County School board voted this afternoon to fire Tony Tata as Wake County Superintendent. Though since Friday I thought this would happen, I’m not celebrating it. I don’t think Tata is a bad guy. I think he just made some poor decisions which ultimately cost him his job.
Again, I hope now that the board can find a superintendent who can come up with the answers that the Wake County School System needs.
How can WCPSS possibly find a superintendent that can deliver answers? No qualified candidate in their right mind would come within 100 miles of this job. The Republicans replaced an ineffective do-nothing in Del Burns with someone that showed leadership and truly served the ENTIRE district — and wasn’t afraid to break a few eggs in the process. He inherited a staff who was on cruise control behind a Dulaney/Holscomb/Hill/Burns “settle for mediocrity and hide our inability to educate the socio-economically challenged youth behind a mask of ‘diversity'” and barely had time to clean house. Tata had us on the right track — and the numbers he leave behind prove that.
Unfortunately, Martin had Tata in his sights from before the election and Evans & Kushner were still mad that he called them out for being inappropriately involved with Great Schools in Wake. Kevin Hill’s stunning display of cowardice in facilitating this action will prove detrimental to the district for years to come. As for Keith Sutton, I don’t whether he lacks brains or balls — or both.
And this school board thinks they can pass a school bond? Fat chance. They ran on a platform of removing partisanship from the board room — and retaining Tata as a leader. They’ve violated the public trust yet again and unfortunately, the county will end up paying through the nose; $253K is a lot to get a guy not to show up for work and that’s a drop in the bucket compared to costs associated with the more expensive financing alternatives the county will be forced to move on when they can’t pass a bond.
It’s a sad day for Wake County. For Republicans. For Democrats. For Sane People of any party. But hey, Yevonne Brannan’s lunatic fringe got what they wanted…